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From:
Date: 12 Jan 2005
Time: 15:22:08 -0500
Remote Name: 192.30.202.28
Hi! Here I am with my score after struggling for this exam for year and half. First of all , I would like to thank everybody who contributes to this forum. I have tremendous respect for every single person participating on it. I got so much information from many of you. Ideas for what books to read and what questions to study. I don't really know what I whould have done without you. Every day I checked the forum to not only get new knowledge, but also to know that I am not the only crazy person in this world:)) ( which I thought about quite often:)) I am a ukranian graduate of 1999. Had my internship in dermatology. What I had to study here was very different from what I studied in Ukraine. And I am sure my countryman know what I am talking about. It may appear to IMG from other countries that my 1.5 years of hard work looks rediculous, but I am writing about this period for those who feel sorry that it takes longer for some of us than others. Don't think about time, think about results. That is the most important thing, right? Here is a list of what I studied: 1.kaplan all subjects (very useful) 2.Lippincot biochemistry, pharmacology (wasn't very thrilled by these books but still consider them helpful during preparation) 3.High-yields embriology, histology, anatomy, neuro, molecular biology 4.Tried "underground clinical vignettes". don't waste time on these books! 5.of course Goljan-the best!!! Listen to his lectures and read the book several times. Don't even think about BRS "pathology" It whould take me ages to pass it if I used this book for reference 6.Physiology Costanzo. I read BRS by the same author "cases and problems" 7.Andras Csillag " Anatomy of the human living"-good for CT slides 8.Anatomy atlas of Netter-strongly recommend 9.Katzung pharmacology- I used it only to solve questions, very good chapters about drugs interactions, but I whouldn't recommend this book for reading. Kaplan pharmacology is the best 10.Robbins big book-just to look at pictures. One kind friend refered this book to me in order to learn pathology. I whould like to see this guy now :))Of course it is a good book, but for a student like me I would never understand concepts of such a difficult and importand subject unless you read this book before, while studing at school. 11.Robbins review of pathology -amazing questions. 5 stars!!! 12.pretest "biochemistry and genetics" Do genetics part. I found this book to be the only one that gives any idea of how to solve genetics questions. Even with it, it was not enough for my exam. 13.pretest microbiology -not good. 14.statistics by appleton and lange -not bad Concerning my scores: Bss around 67% NMS70% Appleton and lange-75%average Q bank 75% All those tests I solved untill may. After that I did IV bank-79%. I solved questions from Fadem book. Blackwell 76%.Kaplan simulated CD 81%, Kaplan CD( I don't know this name)-80% USMLE CD 40,40,42 NBME part 1-590, part 2-560 I read Kaplan many times and made my own notes which I put in FA. I used FA as my final book and read it twice. Now about my exam. It was a terror for me. I told all my friends that several times while taking the exam I had a feeling that it was kind of a joke. How could I get so many questions that I didn't know what they wanted from me? Of course I knew that I whould get some experiental questions, but not like 70% of my exam!! I don't know, I can't say that I panicked. I was quite calm because of my previous performances but I was really depressed after taking my exam. I even wanted to stand up and get out of the testing center without finishing my test. But I got control over myself and decided to stay. My version of the exam was mostly cellular biology, histology, molecular biology, genetics, immunology, and behavioral. At least that is the feeling that I got. There were some straight forward questions but not many. It was the closest to NBME. When I solved NBME I had a feeling that I never had before solving any bank of tests. E.g. solving Kaplan questions you can try to predict how you perfomed but on NBME it is difficult. I felt the same about the exam. So I left the test center with a strong feeling that I had failed. I cried in the car, complained to my friends and went to sleep. The next day I calmed down and realized that I couldn't have done any more in my preparation. Really, what else you can do after all those books and thousands of questions? So I finally relaxed and decided to wait. Today I got my results 90/223 I was very happy, it is more that I could imagine I whould get after my version of the exam! As you can see, it is less that one would predict by my scores during preparation but you should understand it is at some level pure luck. My advise is study as hard as you can for a difficult version and if it is an easy you will get an even higher score. Beleive in yourself. Overall, it is POSSIBLE!!!!! So remeber that is IS possible, and just do it. We can all make it, we can all become doctors because that is what we WANT. Our desire -that is what will take us there. Thank you again my friends, and good luck to all of you! I will be more than willing to answer any questions.